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ARCHIVED - Minister Clement Promotes the Canadian Open Data Experience (CODE) with Tech Students in the Waterloo Area

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For immediate release
November 22, 2013

Waterloo – The Honourable Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, today spoke about the Government of Canada's first national appathon, the Canadian Open Data Experience (CODE), to students and data enthusiasts at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.

"Our Government is promoting and supporting CODE to encourage entrepreneurial innovation that leads to the start-up of new business, economic expansion and job creation," said Minister Clement. "Innovations like the apps created at CODE will ensure Canada remains at the forefront of the global Open Data movement."

The Canadian Open Data Experience will appeal to innovators, students, technology experts and developers, who will be challenged to use and explore roughly 200,000 datasets on data.gc.ca, the Government of Canada's Open Data Portal. The contest will take place next February, and will encourage participants to create apps that solve real world problems for the benefit of Canadians.

"We are pleased to welcome Minister Clement to our university to make this exciting announcement," said Laurier President and Vice-Chancellor Max Blouw. "CODE will be a wonderful opportunity for students to gain entrepreneurial and application-building experience."

CODE was designed to inspire and encourage the development of applications that make use of government data in new and interesting ways. The appathon will bring the high-tech community together to celebrate Canadian entrepreneurship and innovation.

"University of Waterloo students enthusiastically challenge other coders and application builders whenever they participate in events like these," said Ian Goulden, Dean of Mathematics at Waterloo. "I welcome the exciting collaboration between government and industry to engage students in the development of applications that utilize open federal government data. I'm confident that Waterloo students will have a real impact on the CODE appathon."

CODE will also introduce developers and innovators to the wealth of Open Data resources available through data.gc.ca. This is part of the Government of Canada's broader commitment to be at the forefront of the global Open Data movement.

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For more information, contact:

Heather Domereckyj
Press Secretary
Office of the President of the Treasury Board
613-957-2666

Media Relations
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
613-957-2640

If there is a discrepancy between any printed version and the electronic version of this document, the electronic version will prevail.